


Veils and Moonbeams

by kaistrex (weishen)



Series: Prompts [16]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Animagus Stiles, First Kiss, Fluff, Fox Stiles, Full Shift Werewolves, Getting Together, Halloween, Happy Ending, Hufflepuff Derek, M/M, Slytherin Stiles, Werewolf Derek, Wolf Derek, full shift derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 13:28:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12582940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weishen/pseuds/kaistrex
Summary: The fox scampers towards him and now Derek can make out a scatter of black speckles dotted in its fur, most notably in a distinct pattern across its fluffy white cheeks. The same distinct pattern Derek has spent most of his Hufflepuff/Slytherin classes tracing with his eyes.Derek stares. Memories from his third-year Transfiguration lessons are coming back to him, about Animagi and identifying marks. But Stiles isn't an Animagus. He can’t be. Stiles is the class clown and there’s no way he would have been able to keep this quiet, not to mention to be an unregistered Animagus would result in time inAzkaban. Stiles may be smart-mouthed and headstrong but he’s notstupid.Is he?*Because if anyone would become an (illegal) Animagus to surprise the boy they liked, it would be Stiles Stilinski.





	Veils and Moonbeams

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry for the Sterek Week 2017 day 7 theme 'Halloween' and also for this months Sterek Writing Room theme 'Autumn'.  
> Hogwarts AUs are my ultimate jam so it was only a matter of time before I wrote one myself!  
> There’s not actually a full moon on Halloween this year, but I wanted to tie it more closely to the theme of Halloween instead of just saying “Because wizards.” haha

The moon is full overhead when Derek trots out of the Entrance Hall onto the Hogwarts grounds. It’s always a relief to assume his fur after enduring the day leading up to a full moon he can feel drawing ever closer, and now he intends to enjoy the one night a month he has permission to wander the castle after dark to its fullest.

The last full moon on Halloween was nineteen years ago according to Professor Walker — or just ‘Meredith’ as that's all she ever answers to — and she'd been even more dreamy than usual earlier that afternoon during Divination. Her mystical babbling about thin veils and moonbeams had filled the entire class, oblivious to any attempts to prompt a real lesson out of her. She’d seemed to take a specific interest in Derek when it came to the ‘moon alignment drawing together the unlikely’ and nothing could break her from her apparent trance.

The full moon doesn’t feel more potent to Derek, or different in any way at all. There’s just the same sense of loneliness he’d endured the month before, now spending his second ever full moon alone at Hogwarts since Laura graduated last year.

He can feel the pull of his pack from so far away, but it doesn’t do much to ease the solitude. Last month, he’d howled with the foolish hope to hear a reply. He doesn’t try it again.

Instead, he takes what comfort he can in his full belly from the Halloween feast and heads in the direction of the lake, the gently lapping water his favourite thing to hear whenever he chooses to settle down for the night. He abandons the path, preferring instead to test his agility and scale down a few of the rocky outcrops. When he’s nearing the bottom he lifts his head to scent the air and freezes.

He can smell… Stiles, another seventh year, a Slytherin who Derek shares some classes with. Derek would know his scent anywhere and it’s unusually potent, especially since it should have been hours since he was out here.

But it's coming from further down the path to the lake, real, here and now.Derek stops following his shortcut to chase after the scent instead, but it’s not Stiles he finds. At least, it can’t be.

There, at the bottom of the path, twitchy-eared and bushy-tailed, he finds— a fox. A fox that has Stiles’ scent and the very same amber eyes.

The only conclusions Derek can make are that Stiles is either the victim of a prank hex or he got challenged to a duel and lost. But he doesn’t look distressed. In fact, he looks a lot like he’s enjoying himself.

The fox scampers towards him and now Derek can make out a scatter of black speckles dotted in its fur, most notably in a distinct pattern across its fluffy white cheeks. The same distinct pattern Derek has spent most of his Hufflepuff/Slytherin classes tracing with his eyes.

Derek stares. Memories from his third-year Transfiguration lessons are coming back to him, about Animagi and identifying marks. But Stiles isn't an Animagus. He can’t be. Stiles is the class clown and there’s no way he would have been able to keep this quiet, not to mention to be an unregistered Animagus would result in time in _Azkaban_. Stiles may be smart-mouthed and headstrong but he’s not _stupid_.

Is he?

The fox stares back at him, head cocked like it’s waiting for Derek to finish his inner debate. Any doubts over the fox being Stiles evaporate when he sinks low on his haunches then springs up and licks the corner of Derek’s muzzle.

Derek sits down in shock, a _yip_ strangled in his throat, and the fox makes a noise that sounds like it must be laughter. It dances about on its paws before turning and tearing across the grounds.

Derek stares after it, after _Stiles_ , still not sure what the hell is going on, or _how_. Only when Stiles pauses to look back does he finally follow.

He keeps a close eye on him as they make their way down to the lake, watching as he explores, sniffing at the air, the grass, the water and even Derek. He’s still a bit unsteady on his feet like he’s not used to his new form yet, almost falling in the lake at one point.

When they reach the edge of the Forbidden Forest, picking their way over crisp fallen leaves, Stiles tries to venture past the treeline but Derek bars his path. Tripping over tree roots will be enough of a hazard for him, let alone the creatures living inside. Stiles may be a rule-breaker but this is where Derek draws the line. He’ll carry him away by the scruff of his neck if he has to.

Stiles whines, but Derek nudges him with his nose back in the direction of the lake. He huffs but turns back, setting off at a run once more. The retreating tail calls out to Derek like prey and he can’t fight his urge to give chase.

Stiles’ shorter legs are no match for Derek’s longer ones and he has no trouble catching up despite the headstart. He pounces, intending to cage the fox between his front legs and pin him beneath his belly, but Stiles dives to the left in an astonishing display of grace at the last moment and Derek skids across the grass.

Stiles trots over looking extremely proud of himself. He yelps when Derek dives for him again, rolling him onto his back and displaying a white-furred belly speckled with more black spots. Derek can’t help wondering if they’re representations of ones he has on his human body just like the ones on his cheeks.

Stiles squirms free and Derek chases him again, back and forth across the grass.

When Derek manages to catch him for the fifth time he slumps down at the edge of the lake, worn out. Stiles tries to coax him to keep playing by jumping on his back and tugging on his ear with his little fangs but Derek shakes him off. The fox huffs but flops down over Derek’s paws. Derek nudges him with his muzzle, an excuse to scent him, and Stiles bats at him with a paw, eventually wriggling round to press up against his belly.

The proximity and warmth makes Derek’s heart thud. Stiles is smart and funny and fiercely loyal to his friends and Derek may have been a little in love with him ever since Professor Harris had humiliated eleven-year-old Derek for only stirring his Herbicide Potion three times clockwise instead of four. The stress had nearly driven Derek to shift in the middle of the classroom, tears welling in his eyes, until Stiles managed to ‘trip’ into his own cauldron and spill his entire potion over Harris’ shoes, drawing his ridicule away from Derek.

Harris had made it his mission to wage war on Stiles from that day forth, no matter that Stiles was in his own house, and had never bothered Derek since. Though maybe that also had something to do with Laura letting slip to their mother what had happened and a few very colourful threats delivered by Howler to Harris sat at the Professors’ table during breakfast.

It’s been six long years of pining and now they're suddenly curling up together beneath the full moon, an intimate position he's never shared with anyone outside of his pack.

Stiles seems totally oblivious to the enormity of it all, making content snuffling noises as Derek rolls onto his side and lets him settle between his paws.

Derek can't deny the position is cosy and after a long school day and the exertion of their chase, it doesn't take much for sleep to come for him.

 

*

 

Derek wakes a few hours later to the grey-blue light of dawn, shrouded in a light mist and the grass wet with dew. Stiles is still sleeping beside him, belly up and paws twitching, and Derek wakes him with a forceful lick from speckled cheek to eartip.

He starts awake, growling at the interruption, but rolls onto his front and stretches like a cat. Derek follows suit. They need to get back to the castle soon, especially Stiles who shouldn’t get caught by any of the Professors. Stiles knows it too because he jumps up to snap playfully at Derek’s muzzle before racing off back to the castle.

Derek doesn’t try to catch him this time, content to follow instead as he bounds up the front steps and into the Entrance Hall.

Stiles stops and turns to face him inside and they both stare for a few seconds. If he was human, would this be the part where he's supposed to say ‘ _I had a good time tonight’_? But does that make it sound like a date? What even is this?

Stiles cuts short his dilemma by bumping his head against Derek’s front legs, then he turns and trots down the steps to the dungeons. Derek lingers for a few long moments. The night feels a little like a barely-remembered dream now and he's not sure what it will mean for the rest of the day. He wonders if, in a few hours time, it will feel like it even happened.

 

*

 

Later that morning when most people are heading to breakfast, Derek waits outside the wall that leads to the Slytherin common room, watching the stream of students emerging for Stiles.

The first thing he’d done when he’d got back to the dormitory was dig up information on Animagi. Part of the process apparently involves the need to hold a mandrake leaf in the mouth for a month and he can remember that odour wafting from Stiles towards the end of the last school year. Derek had just assumed it was some sort of weird bet, wrinkled his nose and moved on.

But his brief research reminded him that it can take over a year to complete the process to become an Animagus so it's not something Stiles could have just decided to do overnight.

Derek needs answers and he's going to get them.

As expected, Stiles is one of the stragglers heading to breakfast. As soon as he appears, Derek grabs him by the elbow and steers him behind the nearest tapestry shortcut, ignoring his yelp.

“Derek!” Stiles squeaks.

“What were you— How did— Why—?” Derek still doesn't know where to begin and being faced with Stiles in human form is doing nothing to help his scrambled thoughts.

“You knew it was me?”

Derek’s eyebrows draw together. “Of course I knew it was you. Your scent was everywhere.”

“You know what I smell like?”

Stiles’ scent is filling the air around them in their enclosed space right now, so familiar to him. He doesn't want to reveal that to Stiles though so he growls to hide his embarrassment. “That's not important. When the hell did you become an Animagus?”

Stiles averts his eyes, plucking on a loose thread of the tapestry as he licks his lips. The occupant of the wall hanging shouts, “Oi!” and Stiles is quick to withdraw his hand.

“I know this is your first year spending a full moon without Laura now that she's graduated,” he finally explains. “I meant to have it ready for last month's full moon but it took a bit longer than I'd thought for me to finish the transformation.”

“You… You became an Animagus… for me?” The words sound ludicrous as soon as they're out of his mouth and he wishes he could pull them back before Stiles laughs at him.

But instead Stiles lifts a hand to rub the back of his neck. “Well… when you put it like that…”

Before Derek even really knows what he's doing, he's grabbed Stiles by the collar of his robes and drawn him in, fuelled by the memory of a fox licking his muzzle. He pauses at the last second before their lips meet, in terror that he's read this whole thing entirely wrong.

But Stiles makes a short protesting whine and surges forward just as Derek pulls back, so their lips collide in what is probably the most awkward kiss in the history of Hogwarts.

They both jump back at a jarring clash of teeth and Derek can feel his ears heating up. Stiles, usually unflappable, has a blotchy flush of his own spreading across his cheeks.

“Could we maybe try that again?” Stiles squeaks and Derek ducks his head to laugh.

“Yeah,” he answers shyly. “But first,” he declares, sidestepping Stiles’ advancing mouth to start dragging him out of the shortcut by his robes. “We’re informing Professor Deaton of what you’ve done.”

Stiles squawks. “Right now?!”

“Yes, right now! Do you want to go to Azkaban?!”

“I'm still a minor,” Stiles sulks, but he at least obeys Derek’s relentless tugging.

“Do you want to be expelled then?”

Stiles groans and plants his feet, drawing Derek’s coaxing to a halt.

“A kiss for luck?” he asks, fluttering his eyelashes and puckering his lips.

Normally, Derek would never feel so bold, but here he is with his crush of six years asking for a kiss after admitting he underwent the gruelling process to become an Animagus just to keep Derek company on full moons he has to spend without his pack. It's probably the most romantic thing he's ever heard and he never thought he'd be on the receiving end of such a gesture.

He steps closer and plants what he intends to be a quick peck on Stiles’ lips, but Stiles’ hand comes up to cradle the back of his neck, holding him in place for a long — but chaste — kiss.

He feels Stiles smile against his lips just before they break apart.

“One for courage too?” Stiles asks, eyes wide and innocent.

Derek snorts, but darts in for one more kiss, ducking away before Stiles can prolong it again.

“There. Now don't push your luck,” Derek says, but this time instead of leading Stiles by his robes, he takes his hand instead.

Stiles smiles down at their clasped fingers and follows with no more arguments.

After informing Professor Deaton — who, unsurprisingly, already knew exactly what Stiles had been up to and had the necessary forms filled in and ready to go (along with a string of detentions in place of a more severe punishment) — news of Stiles’ status spreads like wildfire.

Even Lydia Martin looks grudgingly impressed (she’s never one to be outdone and especially not by Stiles. Derek wouldn’t be surprised if she’s already calculating how to become an Animagus quicker than Stiles did.)

From that point on, Stiles ends up spending an unnecessary amount of time as a fox. Derek does like to join him, especially once the weather gets even colder and they can find a fireplace to curl up in front of together.Derek never really turned into a wolf outside of full moons before Stiles became his boyfriend, but now it's a common occurrence to see a black wolf trotting down the corridors with a fox by his side.

Stiles has it easier considering his clothes reappear whenever he shifts back, though he's told Derek on more than one occasion, with wiggling eyebrows and a lecherous grin, that he doesn't mind that at all.

It still makes Derek grumpy. That is, until the full moon where Stiles meets him out by the lake then transforms back to human to reveal he left his clothes back in the dormitory.

Amidst frantic kissing and wandering hands, Derek discovers that, yes, the speckles in Stiles’ fur are exact representations of the ones on his skin.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, you can find me on tumblr [here](http://kaistrex.tumblr.com) or at my fic rec blog [UnderappreciatedSterek](http://underappreciatedsterek.tumblr.com)!


End file.
